South Sudanese writer Arthur Gabriel Yak has been declared the winner of this year’s Quramo Writers Prize.
According to multiple online sources, Yak was awarded for his manuscripts titled; Whispers of Survival. The award package comprises US$617 prize money and a publishing contract.
The award marks a major milestone for Yak, who published his first collection of short stories; It Does Not Matter, You’re From There, in 2009. He was awarded the Arab Fund for Arts and Culture (AFAC) grant in 2014 to work on his novel, The Day Azrael Committed Suicide, set in the South Sudanese capital Juba.
Yak also works as a journalist and writes for the South Sudanese, Arabic-language newspaper al-Maugif.
The Quramo Writers’ Prize is awarded annually to an unpublished fiction manuscript by an unpublished author.
The prize was initiated by the Lagos-based Quramo Publishers to encourage talented writers as well as provide an opportunity for otherwise unexposed talent to achieve publishing recognition.
The submissions are evaluated on originality, narrative strength, coherence, language and dramatic intensity.